


Mozzie's Choice

by Lalaith_Quetzalli



Category: White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: Ace Mozzie, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Polyamory, Companion Piece, Feels, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28784670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalaith_Quetzalli/pseuds/Lalaith_Quetzalli
Summary: Companion Piece to "Choices" though it can be read as a stand alone.Mozzie had known Neal Caffrey for more than seven years, that was almost a lifetime for people in their line of work, people who made a point of never making friends, never trusting anyone… But Mozzie liked Neal, considered him a very good associate, a dear friend, trusted him (might have once, almost, been in love with him)… the last thing Mozzie ever expected was that one day Neal might not choose him…
Relationships: Background Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey, Elizabeth Burke & Peter Burke & Neal Caffrey & Mozzie, Neal Caffrey & Mozzie
Kudos: 9





	Mozzie's Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Choices](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28684785) by [Lalaith_Quetzalli](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalaith_Quetzalli/pseuds/Lalaith_Quetzalli). 



> I swear I don't hate Mozzie, I don't see him as a villain, or anything like that. I know not everyone agrees with what I did with Mozzie in "Choices" but I truly hope this fic will help explain where I'm coming from, and to make things better. A more in-depth explanation of things can be found in the end-notes, though beware, they could be considered a bit spoilery. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Mozzie's Choice

_By: Lalaith Quetzalli_

_Mozzie had known Neal Caffrey for more than seven years, that was almost a lifetime for people in their line of work, people who made a point of never making friends, never trusting anyone… But Mozzie liked Neal, considered him a very good associate, a dear friend, trusted him (might have once, almost, been in love with him)… the last thing Mozzie ever expected was that one day Neal might not choose him…_

* * *

" _Above all, don't lie to yourself."_

~ Fyodr Dostoyevsky ~

Fyodr Dostoyevsky once said: 'Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lies comes to a point where he cannot distinguish the truth within or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.' Like so many other quotes and speeches of wise (and not-so-wise) men, Mozzie knows the words by heart (pack and parcel of having perfect recall… it can be a trial) and lives by them.

Mozzie's a conman, he knows that, revels in it. Mozzie's a very methodical man, with attention to detail. He could have been a scholar, a scientist, an erudite, but what good would any of that do him? When the government and the rich corporations, the one percent, would take all his work and either use it or destroy it as it suit them. He's seen it before. So many stories, so many whispers, of bright men and women, of their work, lost to the whims of the few. Mozzie's a genius, truly, too much of one to believe the lies spoon-fed to them all by a system carefully engineered to keep the poor poor, while making the rich even richer. To keep the status quo, make the worker ants kill themselves working for the Queen… Or would bees be a better metaphor? Bees that lose their sting, and their lives, if they ever think about fighting back?

In any case, Mozzie's always known who he is, and what he is. He likes money, and with his talents it isn't hard to get it. The way he sees it, all those rich bastards always have more than they need, certainly a lot more than they deserve, and he's the one in the best position to 'relieve' them of some of that excess wealth so…

Being a genius allows Mozzie to get away with a lot. No one's better than him at planning ways to get other people's money. Especially using methods that most people can never be sure whether he's scamming them or not. He has an excellent memory and no compunction about using it in the ways most convenient and profitable to himself. And in his time he's learned more than a few tricks. He knew early on that people on the 'other side of the law' would see him as a criminal, and thus devised all the best ways to keep himself safe. He'd always been one for reading, since he was very young. One of his favorite pastimes was reading crime-novels (either fiction or true crime) and picking apart all the ways the criminals screwed up, think of all the ways he could have done things better. It's how he came to create all the rules he'd later live his life by. Rules like never using his real name, never being where he could be found. He'd dozens of aliases and could be found in a variety of locations on different days of the week. He did favors (small favors) to the right people and soon he had a network that would allow him to do more than most would have believed possible. Though perhaps his greatest asset (well, second greatest, after his brain) was that he was, in the eyes of most people, unattractive. He wasn't the kind of man others gave a second look, much less stared at, and that was a huge help. If people didn't remember him, he was safe.

It was a lonely life, all things told. Another of his rules (or rather, several of them) said that he couldn't trust others. Colleagues could always turn on him for the right incentive (most likely money), it was impossible to have friends when he trusted no one with the truth about him (because it wasn't only cops who could use whatever you said against you). But it was the life he chose, and he didn't regret… most days.

Meeting Neal… it was a shock in many ways to Mozzie. Here was this kid, with so much raw, natural talent, gorgeous and cute and so innocent, and He Was a Kid! A kid with enough balls to try and con Mozz in his own game! For the first few moments Mozzie wasn't sure if he wanted to love or hate the kid. In the end he decided to 'take him under his wing', so to speak. It was a partnership that rendered far more than he ever imagined possible. Because Mozzie? He had the brain, had the capacity for creating complicated plans, and secondary plans, and contingencies, and even backups for the contingencies; he was the kind of man who didn't go into something without having plans for at least half the alphabet at any given time! But the kid… Neal? He was the kind of person who could keep his calm even during the most insane situations; who, when it all went to hell, could still think clearly enough to formulate an escape plan at the drop of a hat, and if everything else failed, he was perfectly capable of bullshitting his way out of nearly anything. Also, he had the balls to do insane things Mozz would have never dared, and instead of being terrified out of his mind, he reveled in the midst of all that fear and adrenaline, like to him it was all the greatest high ever.

Really, if it had been anyone else Mozzie would have stayed clear of him after learning he was an adrenaline junkie. It wasn't good for business, being in it for the thrill. Someone who reacted to fear with delight instead of caution, but it was like the kid could just get away with anything and… while Mozzie might not have admitted it out-loud, he liked him. Neal was the closest he'd had to a friend since leaving Chicago. Though Mozzie was sure the kid was gonna give him a heart-attack one day, with the way he wore his heart on his sleeve… Mozz just knew that would not end well for him.

Mozzie never liked Kate. He was half convinced that she was the reason their plan on Adler failed. Mozzie and Neal, they were too good at what they did, Adler should have never seen them coming, even with Alex's unexpected appearance. He knew from the moment the kid began babbling about the 'gorgeous Kate' and smiling and looking all-around like a besotted idiot, Mozzie knew it was going to be a problem. Though he never expected how much.

He never told Neal of his suspicions regarding the fair Kate. He knew Neal wouldn't have taken it well. Knew it from the moment Neal called him and told him, in no uncertain terms, that there would be three of them leaving New York that afternoon, rather than two. Though even then he didn't realize how far gone Neal was, until he started going across Europe doing all sorts of insane stunts. And all for her!

Kate wasn't bad at being a con, not really. She had a good head on her shoulders and did her best to contribute to the plans. Knew her art, even if she didn't have quite the flair Neal, or the great attention to detail Mozzie himself did. The real problem was: she was a princess. She was used to a good, comfortable life, and could never understand why they couldn't live like that all the time. She didn't get the idea that 'living off the grid' meant not living in luxury. Neal's grand gestures, both in the romantic area, and where it came to doing the jobs might have kept her interested, but sooner or later, she was always going to bail…

And then Neal ended behind bars. Because he became so focused on getting freaking Kate back, that he got sloppy, got distracted, didn't realize the Feds were far closer than he thought they were. It's not like Neal didn't know the FBI was after him, he seemed to take great delight in it for some reason. To the point where he'd even stalked the Suit in charge of his case for a while (Mozzie didn't get what went through the kid's head sometimes…). He'll give it to the Suit though, he managed to catch Neal, managed to keep up with him long enough to eventually get him, no one else managed it. And thus, Neal got sent to jail. If only that had been the end of it. But it wasn't, not by a long shot.

When Mozzie first heard the name Peter Burke, he never expected the man to one day become more of a trouble than Kate ever was. Even with the inordinate delight Neal seemed to take in baiting the man, in leaving little crumbs for him to find whenever it seemed like he was falling too far behind, and when he stopped having to do that, because the Suit began to consistently keep up with him all on his own. Mozzie had to admit that at first he thought it was nothing more than the thrill value of it. That being pursued by the law added to the level of adrenaline Neal already got while pulling all those insane, improbable heists. Even when things got rocky with Kate, even when Neal finally landed in jail, it never occurred to Mozzie that there might be more to it all than just seeking a new high… not until he spends hours in the patio of the apartment Neal's staying in for the duration of his conditional parole, only for the man in question to be a no-show. And then, when his gut finally gets the better of him and he goes running to the warehouse… only to find the place flooded with Suits!

Mozzie feels horrified. More than that, he feels betrayed. That was his… their treasure! For several minutes he actually considers the possibility that something might have gone very, terribly wrong, that Neal might have been chucked back in prison… or worse. He's halfway through making a plan that would have involved a most insane disguise, calling in half the favors that are owed to him, and the need for them both to get out of the continent pronto, when he sees him… sees Neal, in his fancy vintage suit, standing beside a car, watching the Suits carry off things. His hands are in his pockets, and he looks… calm. Mozzie knows better than most how good an actor he is, all the ways he's capable of keeping calm even when everything's falling around him; he knows, and precisely for that reason, he knows that in that moment Neal isn't acting. He truly is that calm, even while watching a bunch of suits carry off all that art, all that treasure… their… His White Whale!

**xXx**

It takes almost a whole week before he can see Neal. Despite how often he drops by June's place, Neal never seems to be there. It makes Mozzie wonder briefly if he truly is back in prison; only he's quite sure that if Neal Caffrey were back behind bars he'd have heard about it (he'd a feeling that everyone in the business would have heard about it) or if perhaps his pet Suit is keeping him on a short leash… or is Neal the pet nowadays? Mozzie doesn't even know what he's thinking nowadays, or where all his thoughts are coming from.

"Why did you do it Moz?"

When Neal finally does show up it almost takes Mozzie by surprise, almost. To the point where he only really listens to the first question Neal asks, and doesn't even bother with it because, shouldn't the answer be obvious?! And then, just like that, he's suddenly filled with deep self-righteous fury towards his (former) best friend:

"You gave our treasure to the Suits?!" He's practically shrieking and doesn't care.

It goes downhill from there. He's not even sure what all he's saying, even to his own ears it sounds like just more of the same, the same things he's been telling Neal all along. About the government, and The Man, and the Elite, the Suits and their brainwashing and how he's becoming nothing more than a tool for them! And he cannot believe, cannot believe that Neal would honestly let that treasure go, it was the greatest treasure ever; their greatest score, the kind no one would have ever gone after them for, because no one even knew it still existed! Their big chance, like Melville's Moby Dick, that treasure was their very own white whale! And Neal gave it to the feds like it didn't matter! Like it was worth nothing! Like their friendship was worth nothing! All their plans, their greatest dreams, of retirement, of a little island somewhere with no extradition where they could live out their lives in peace and prosperity!

Except, Neal apparently doesn't care about any of that, doesn't care about Mozzie… that thought is abruptly brought to a halt with Neal's own scream:

"I Chose Them!"

Excuse me, what?! He cannot, he's sure he cannot have heard that, it isn't possible… Neal can't possibly choose the Suit over him, over Mozz… and yeah, he knows he's not exactly Neal's type, but it's not like this is about that anyway, not like they've ever been like that, even back when Mozzie still was interested in things like sex…

"Over me?!" He demands, with all the anger he can muster, because anger is better than shock, than disbelief and hurt and… "You'd choose a Suit over me?"

Neal's reply truly, honestly, breaks something in him:

"No, I'd choose Peter and El over you…"

It's quiet, so very, very quiet, but Mozzie can still hear him, can hear the words as loud as if they'd been shouted. And he cannot believe them. Cannot believe Neal would do… would be so foolish! He's… is it about the sex? It cannot be about the sex. He knows Neal likes sex, though Mozzie for the life of him cannot understand what's so great about it. In any case, it cannot be about the sex, the Suit isn't that attractive, even the fair Mrs. Suit, Neal could have any woman his heart desires and even most men… so it cannot be about sex, which only leaves…

"Oh Neal… don't tell me you've managed to con yourself…"

"This is not about conning myself Moz, this isn't about conning at all. It's about choices."

"That's what you're trying to convince yourself of…"

"I love them Moz!" Neal cuts his off. "I love them, and they love me…"

"You think they love you! Love is a lie Neal, it's the oldest con in the book…" He just needs Neal to understand…

"Byron could do it, he could leave it all behind, for June."

That statement just compounds the shock because, what?! For a few seconds Mozzie's brain honestly crashes because he cannot just have heard what he thinks he just heard, Neal cannot possibly… All along he's always believed that Kate was the problem! That she was so much of a princess that Neal lost himself in trying to be his prince. Neal was a kid after all, and he lost his mind a little to the pretty girl… But Kate is gone now! Adler too is dead, which means that, for all intents and purposes the fair Kate has been avenged! So why then is Neal still acting like he's trying to become the white-knight in his own bizarre neo-fantasy novel?!

"And you really think you can leave it all behind? The beauty of the art, the money, the luxuries, the thrill of it all?" There's no way, just no way…

"I already have."

Neal cannot be that stupid!

"Oh Neal… you keep lying to yourself. You'll come to regret it."

"Is that a threat?" Neal's eyes narrow, he's missing the point entirely!

"No, it's…" Mozzie breaks off, shaking his head, what was the point, he wasn't listening, at all. "Doesn't matter." He picks up his things and heads towards the door, not even turning to look at Neal as he walks past him, he's almost at the door when he speaks again, barely turning over his shoulder: "Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said: 'The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lies comes to a point where he cannot distinguish the truth within or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others'." He exhales. "I don't know you anymore Neal."

It's meant to be a low blow, and yet the reply he gets is even worse…

"You never did." Neal whispers quietly, so very quietly.

Mozzie wants to snort, he really does. That he doesn't know Neal? Please! That's utterly ridiculous, he's known Neal since he was a kid, wet behind the ears, with more balls than brains! Okay, not exactly like that, but still, the kid had more talent than he knew what to do with.

In the end Mozzie just nods, there's no point on saying, or doing, anything else. Neal will believe what he wants to, whatever makes it easier for him to move forward with the choice he's made. The choice of clipping his own wings, of resigning himself to a mundane life instead of the extraordinary one he could have had…

"I'll see myself out, we won't be meeting again." He mutters, more to himself than to the younger man, half lost in his thoughts already.

Mozzie spends the whole night moving, working. He wants to believe that, whatever else might have changed, Neal will not be so petty to send the wolves after him, but he cannot be sure, so he sets the ball rolling as soon as he's out the door. By sunrise he's liquidated most of his assets, burnt everything he's not taking with him and packing what's left.

It's until he's boarding a plane under one of his oldest aliases, one he hasn't used in over a decade (one Neal doesn't know of) that his mind betrays him in a most unexpected manner, with the memory of Neal's voice, the questions he asked when first stepping into the apartment:

" _Why did you do it Moz? Why did you use my paintings?"_

Why did he use Neal's paintings? It'd be easy to say that there needed to be traces of canvases and paintings for the Feds to find, when they investigated the fire, so they had no reason to believe that the treasure hadn't burned. And he had easy access to Neal's… but then again, he had access to a lot of other things too. It'd have been so easy to use reproductions from any other people, even bad works would have served, even raw materials. After all, they were all supposed to burn, nothing was meant to survive. Except something did, something had to, for Neal to even know that his paintings were used… did the Suit know? Did the other Suits? Had they accused Neal of being the mastermind? Except no, that cannot be it, if he was being forced Neal would have never spouted all that about love and the Suits and quitting the Work!

And what would he have done if that were true? If Neal had in fact turned the treasure to the Feds under duress? Because some remains of his paintings made the Suit turn on Neal, believing that he planned it all along? If Neal had been charged for a crime he didn't commit… someone who didn't know Mozzie might even believe that he planned it that way, an attempt to cut Neal away from those who wanted to take him away from Mozzie… Except that's completely ridiculous and not what happened anyway. No, Neal betrayed Him! Turned his back on him, on his best friend! And Mozzie? He decided it was time to cut his losses and run. Because he's the bright one, a genius really.

Neal doesn't want to see the truth, but he's lying to himself; he's fallen to his own con. And one day, one day he'll see the truth, and he'll regret it. He'll regret giving up the wonderful life he had, the best friend he chose to betray, everything he could have been… Mozzie just knows. He can only hope Neal will live to regret it…

**xXx**

Mozzie hears about Keller's death first. It'd seem that the bastard managed to screw over at least one person in every corner of the world, because even in the little piece of Paradise Mozzie has chosen to 'retire' to there's someone toasting to his death. He only finds out the rest a month or so later, during one of his trips to an actual city, where he picks up several envelopes and one package sent to him through a number of intermediaries carefully arranged to ensure no one really knows where he truly is. The package is the one that calls his attention first, especially when he sees it comes from none other than Alex Hunter…

Mozzie heads to a little safe-house he keeps in that city, to open the package there, though only after checking it every way he can think of to be sure that there's no danger. Finally, once he's fairly certain he opens the package. Then glances at the first page half-absently, and when he registers what it is, the shock is so great he drops the package entirely, sheets of paper and several pictures going flying all around him.

It takes a good few seconds for Mozzie to calm down enough to collect everything and actually start to go through it. It's like a nightmare. There are pictures of a place he eventually recognizes as the Burkes' house in Brooklyn, copies of crime-scene pictures! He can see broken glass, overturned chairs, a table, traces of chalk on the wooden floors, and worst of all, actual blood stains, one especially prominent… There's a copy of a transcript, from a call to 911, made from a neighbor of the Burkes, a nervous, scared woman who said she could hear banging, shouting, and then two gunshots… there are also copies of statements of several people, including paramedics, NYPD, and even a couple of people Mozzie thinks worked with the Suit. But what shocked him first and worst, the paper Alex left at the top, is the copy of a Death Certificate, with the name of Neal George Caffrey right there in bold black letters.

Mozzie doesn't want to believe it, he refuses to at first. But once he finally gets over his usual reticence and misgivings and actually goes online, checking through forums, and even going as far as placing calls to a couple of people he knows, he gets confirmation from all directions. Neal Caffrey truly is dead. Was shot by Matthew Keller (who died minutes later from a shot to head, allegedly courtesy of the Suit).

Even with all the repeated confirmations Mozzie really doesn't want to believe it, something in his core, an intrinsic part of him refuses to accept that someone like Neal: talented, fantastic, genius (gorgeous) Neal might have died. His denial is so strong he rushes back to his little safe-house in his piece of paradise and refuses to come out for a long while.

**xXx**

Mozzie holds onto his belief that it must all be a con of some kind for years. Even when the only word on Neal Caffrey are the increasingly unbelievable stories some people seem to like to make up about the man's exploits. It's also become common knowledge that he worked for the FBI as a CI for almost two years, and was involved in the recovery of billions in Nazi plunder, mostly art and artifacts stolen from Russia, most of which is now in a very nice museum in St. Petersburg, the museum has a very formal official name, some Russian artist or patron probably, but those in their 'world' like to call it the 'Caffrey treasure'.

Wanting to have some kind of excuse to hate him Mozzie goes as far as tracking down the money Russia awarded Neal for the recovery of the treasure. Only to learn that it was donated in its entirety to some Charity; who in turn built the Katherine Moreau Gallery, remodeling a bunch of old warehouses. The gallery specializes in reproductions, not seeing them as forgeries, but as a stepping stone for potential future artists. One of the warehouses holds a workshop every week; known artists will travel to NY from all over the world to give a free class about what they do, about what makes them artists, they are also free to choose a possible student from those who attend. It's been known to happen, more than once (it's also known, though only in very specific circles, that a number of the young and not-so-young artists that frequent the gallery have more than once aided the White Collar divisions of FBI in the capture of criminals, though only when it was truly necessary).

It takes years for Mozzie to set foot in New York again, even when he finally gets bored enough of his so-called retirement to leave the island and make trips into the 'real world', he keeps clear of New York for the longest time, until he just cannot help himself anymore. He goes by his old haunts, not really stopping anywhere specific until, almost without realizing it, he ends up at the Moreau Gallery. The place is bigger than he expected, several buildings of what used to be warehouses, and still look a bit like such, except for how the brick walls are completely covered by clearly amateur art, a mix of styles and artists. It looks insane, messy, and yet somehow it also serves to express quite clearly what the gallery is all about. And while Mozzie was never Kate's greatest fan, he knows she loved art, and has a feeling she'd have loved the gallery.

One particular building, near the back, holds nothing but Caffrey works, reproductions of all kinds, from sketches, to paintings, even a few sculptures and a couple of jewel pieces. The latter are not something the gallery specializes in, but apparently the fact that they're Caffrey pieces makes it alright. Mozzie didn't even know that so many of Neal's creations still existed (later on he will hear someone comment how most of the pieces were 'donated' by several museums and collectors around the world who'd found they possessed the pieces, though at least a quarter was donated by the FBI).

Mozzie's goes through the gallery in silence, secure that the hat plain clothing and new glasses are different enough from his old look that he won't be recognized by any old acquaintance of his that might happen to be in the same place. Eventually he reaches the buildings dedicated to profesional artists, (with pieces that aren't forgeries). At the entrance of each room is a small bio, mostly enlisting the artist's place of origin, their style, and sometimes even why they choose it. Like Frank Ellington. He does Photorealism (which Mozzie has always believed can barely be considered art, especially because there are so many who do little more than project something and draw over it, like children tracing someone else's work with onion paper). Except Ellington's work isn't just about the photographs, and even the reproduction of those are said to be done entirely by freehand; but the truly special touch of the artist seem the be the one detail in color he adds to the otherwise black and white pieces, highlighting whatever he believes to be the most important in each.

The bio makes Mozzie curious so he goes into the room. What he finds looks both simple and complicated and he cannot help but be at least a bit entranced by the works he can see. Unlike other artists that work with photorealism, Ellington doesn't display the original pictures, but they aren't really needed. A few manage to draw and keep Mozzie's attention: like one of a young woman with some nondescript background, holding a bouquet of red carnations. While the flowers (the only piece with color) cover just enough of her face to conceal her identity, Mozzie cannot help but think she reminds him of Kate. Though the one that truly impacts him is the second to last piece in the gallery, that of a woman, sitting on a bed, naked, with the sheet pulled around her hips, long brown hair cascading down her back, her face is turned like she's looking over her shoulder at the artist (or photographer), and there's a fedora hat obscuring most of her face. The color there is in the bedside lamp, a pale yellow, which clearly affects the way the light reflects on her naked skin and hair.

"Mrs. Suit…?!" Mozzie's mouth drops open in shock.

It takes a while for Mozzie to be able to turn away from the piece, and then his eyes fall on the very last one. The last picture is so simple, and so poignant: three hands connected, each a left hand, which makes it clear that each belongs to a different individual, two men and one woman, the background is empty, it doesn't matter, and the only piece of color are the wedding rings, one on each hand, all perfectly identical…

Mozzie blinks when he notices that he's not the only one admiring that particular piece. There's a kid standing very still in front of it, seemingly riveted by the image. He's wearing a simple blue polo shirt and khakis, nothing special, dark brown hair and blue eyes, as becomes clear when the boy notices his presence and turns to look at him.

"Hey Mister, you like the art pieces?" He asks Mozzie.

The question is easy enough, but the way he's staring at Mozzie, as if trying to glean the answer before Mozzie says a single word, it unsettles him, reminds him too much of the Suit.

"I find them interesting." Mozzie allows.

"Are you an artist too?" The boy asks next.

"Depends on what you consider art." Mozzie doesn't even know why he's being so evasive exactly, it isn't a complicated question! And it's just a kid asking it, not a freaking Suit!

"Papa says everything in the world can be art, if we only have eyes to see it." The boys sounds particularly proud as he says those words, they're clearly important to him.

"Sounds like your papa's an artist." Mozzie says, doesn't even know why he's still chatting to the kid, there's just something about him…

"He is!" The kid sounds honestly excited as he says it. "Really, really good!"

"And you?" Mozzie's curious.

"I like to draw…" The boy lowers his eyes, a note of chagrin in his voice. "But I'm not good at it, not like papa, or like Ellie, she's my sister!"

"Okay," Mozzie honestly doesn't know what to say to that.

"But that's okay! Dad says I don't have to be an artist, I get to choose what I want to be! And mama says that I don't even have to choose right now, I'm still a kid, I have time…"

Mozzie half-tunes out the kid as his brain tries and fails to comprehend what he's saying. And then his line of thought is brought to an abrupt halt as he hears a voice call a name he knows all too well…

"Neal!"

Mozzie's head snaps up instantly, and he's not the only one.

"I'm here dad!" Neal calls, somewhat loudly.

"I've told you time and time again not to run off on your own!" A voice Mozzie knows well says approaching slowly but surely.

By the time Agent Peter Burke (who Mozzie still calls purely 'Suit' in his head) crosses the threshold into that particular gallery Mozzie's made himself scarce.

"Here again?" Peter asks as he approaches the boy.

It becomes clear to Mozzie that the boy's his son, which explains, to a point at least, the name (the conman does wonder if it was his idea, or Mrs. Suit's).

"You should know by now Peter, he always comes straight here." A female voice announces as Elizabeth Burke herself steps into the gallery.

"Well, I suppose I cannot fault his taste…" Peter says in a drawl, turning to look at his wife over his shoulder and winking at her.

Elizabeth just rolls her eyes, she's still on the entrance to the room and turns in a direction Mozzie cannot see, from his position behind a decorative column.

"Ellie darling, tell your papa…" She breaks off, probably when seeing said person. "Over here Frank, we're at your gallery."

The girl, Ellie, steps into the room first, Mozzie guesses she's the sister the boy… Neal? (Mozzie just isn't sure he can bring himself to use that name to address anyone but… His Neal… well, not his, but still, in his mind there can only ever be one Neal). She has wavy chestnut brown hair to her shoulders, her bangs braided to a side to keep them off her face, away from her blue eyes… it's the eyes that leave Mozzie breathless, because they're such a particular shade of blue, light, crystal blue… he has perfect recall, and is absolutely certain that only one person in the world has ever had eyes that particular shade of blue…

"Come on papa! Mom and dad are waiting!" The girl calls impatiently.

"I'm coming darling, I'm coming…"

When Mozzie hears that voice, for a moment he's sure he's hallucinating, until he steps into the room. The man looks nothing like the Neal Caffrey in his memories, he's wearing jeans, a denim button up that's a slightly washed-out blue, except for the front panels, which are off-white, and tanned-leather boots. He has a beard, peppered with white, though surprisingly enough both the mustache and his actual hair have very little of it. Still, it's clear that, slowly but surely, he's getting old. Mozzie exhales, as he realizes the hard, painful truth, that the man in front of him isn't Neal Caffrey, not really. He's Frank Ellington, a husband (twice over!) a father, an artist, a man who's managed to make a life on the right side of the law.

He vaguely hears Ne… the kid, tell the Suit about having met some man, only then realizing that Mozzie has vanished. That seems to put Peter on alert, as he begins casing the room. At least until N… Frank interrupts him, telling him to relax, they're having a day off, not working a case, that whoever their son saw must have been one of the visitors to the gallery.

"It's not like there's something in here worth enough for someone to want to steal it." The artist says in a self-deprecating tone.

"The value of art, like that of many other things, is entirely subjective." Peter states in a snobbish tone, before shifting to a more tender one and adding. "Each and every pieces is worth more than money to me. Because each and every one of them are a piece of you."

"It's just art." Frank shrugs. "Beautiful yes, but nothing compared to the real beauty in this world. Us… all of us, this family we've built…"

Just art?! That's heresy! And yet seeing them in that moment, seeing how the Suit gets closer, kissing the other man without hesitation, and the way Mrs. Suit then approaches as well, sharing kisses with each of them in turn. And the kids… they roll their eyes halfheartedly but don't resist when their parents pull them closer to join in the group hug. In that moment Mozzie can see what he refused to all those years ago, he can see the bonds that tie all of them together, that always have, that always will.

Neal Caffrey's well and truly dead… and it's taken Mozzie seeing this… this other man in front of him, to truly accept it. It might not have been Matthew Keller's bullet that did it, but it was something just as absolute and unstoppable: it was love.

He remembers suddenly, with almost painful clarity, the question Neal (back when he was still Neal) asked him once:

" _Why did you do it Moz? Why did you use my paintings?"_

It's the question that keeps going round and round in his head, the one he's never wanted to answer, not for real, not even to himself. Because truth is that in his whole life there was only one person he ever let get close, past his walls of paranoia and countless eccentricities. Only one person he ever saw as more than a 'colleague' a 'frontman', whom he saw as friend, family, as the closest someone like him could have to a soulmate, a twin-flame… and that someone was Neal Caffrey…

Kate… she was pretty, a princess, a diva, she was a good distraction, nothing more than that. Also, she was as into the criminal life as they were. It's why Mozzie never worried when Neal was obsessed with her. Much as he might kid himself that they'd marry and have the American dream, Kate wasn't the kind to do straight-and-narrow, not after having a taste of the wild side. Alex was the same. Sara… it was easy to keep her at bay, too obsessed with the Raphael. She could have become a problem in the long term, but it never came to that. Only, Mozzie didn't realize that the reason why she never became a problem wasn't for lack of interest on either's part, or in any case, that there was a very important reason for Neal's lack of interest. Never in a hundred years would Mozzie have imagined what happened. Well, Neal falling for the Suit wasn't entirely surprising, if he was honest, Mozzie always suspected that Neal got all hot and bothered every time the Suit got close; what he never expected was for the Suit to return the interest, much less to do something about it! And Mrs. Suit!

Mozzie could see it, the way he began losing Neal, piece by piece, as he got more and more involved, more and more invested, in the new lifestyle, on the other side of the road. Aiding the Suits in putting behind bars those he should have been aiding! And granted, some were absolute bastards, like the Hagen and Keller, and Mozzie really didn't mind that Adler was now six feet under… but he hated losing Neal. Hated it so much he did everything he could think of to stop it from happening… Everything.

Ringing laughter and footsteps moving away pull him out of his reverie, in time to see the little family walking towards the exit. They're happy… Fra… Neal is happy, happier than he's ever seen him, than he ever imagined seeing him. He's grown, changed, and it suits him, somehow, more than the old Devore suits and the fedora, more than the old armor…

They're just at the threshold when he stops, just for a moment, looking back, he says something and Mozzie could have almost sworn he heard words directed to him:

"Good luck Mozz…"

Mozzie wants to laugh, he wants to cry…

" _Happy endings aren't for guys like us"_

He said that to Neal once, many times in fact, so many times. Neal never listened of course and now… he's starting to wonder if maybe he was in the right all along.

" _Happy endings aren't for guys like us"_

The words echo inside his head, and in a moment of heedless insanity, he cannot help but respond out-loud, words loud in the empty room:

"Yeah? Says who?"

**Author's Note:**

> I don't hate Mozzie. Lets establish that first. I really don't. The way I see Mozzie... he's a conman, he knows that, accepts it, has absolutely no problem with it. He knows himself, accepts himself, isn't ashamed at all of what he is and does. And that's not a bad thing (legalities and morality aside... which does matter, but isn't actually the point right now). The thing is, at least the way I see it, that Mozzie being that way, he doesn't understand why others wouldn't be the same. With those like Peter, Elizabeth, Diana, etc., well, he knew them as 'good, law-abiding' citizens first, so even though he might think they'd make good conmen, he doesn't expect them to change. With Neal... he knew Neal as a conman first, and doesn't understand why he'd want to change when he's so good at it. 
> 
> It's canon that Mozzie was never supportive of Neal 'going legal' so-to-speak. At least once a season or so Neal expresses an interest in leaving the con behind, and Mozzie is either disbelieving, or even outright opposed to it. Doesn't mean he wouldn't have supported Neal, they were still friends, but he doesn't agree. The biggest show of all this, I think, was in Mozzie's attitude when it came to the treasure, which I tried to portray. I never intended to make him a bad guy, just human. Hope I managed. 
> 
> At the same time, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the fact that Neal called Peter before he knew who left the note and key is important. I honestly believe it didn't occur to Neal until later that Mozzie might be behind it. That's important because I truly believe Neal would have never betrayed Mozzie, not even for Peter and El. He cared for Mozzie, even if they didn't agree on some things. Also, knowing Mozzie used his paintings... well, being angry with him about that also helps stop him feeling guilty about telling Peter about the treasure (it's easier to push aside one strong emotion with another equally strong one... and they're both equally valid). Also, lets be honest, Mozzie using Neal's paintings never sat well with me, so this was my chance to let that out. 
> 
> As for the whole Ace... well, to be honest, before that unexpected episode near the end when they tell us he's married I honestly believed Mozzie to be ace. The only time he showed interest in someone before it was always very elaborate, but there was never even a kiss, not even a suggestion that he might be interested in more than talking, dating and such. And that was just fine with me (to be honest I watched S6 after I was already more than halfway through this, and I liked Ace!Mozzie, so I decided to keep him). 
> 
> Hope all you Mozzie-lovers like this, or at least feel I did him justice. 
> 
> See ya around!


End file.
